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Show " " 1 ' - - - -- - Z-. EBinitiioflLl tags low - s j i I I I I ' -1 t ! ,V x -V - S - LATE HARVEST Robert Goodfellow pets his stray cat as he awaits customers cus-tomers for the sale of his late harvest apples at the fruit stand at 1265 North Main, Bountiful. Photo by Gary Blodgett. City council receives report By GARY R. BLODGETT Clipper News Editor Compared to the 10 most populated popu-lated cities in Utah and other communities com-munities in Davis County, Bounti-ful's Bounti-ful's property and franchise taxes remain among the lowest. A REPORT to the Bountiful City Council last Wednesday night showed that Bountiful ranks the third lowest among the 10 most populated cities in the state and fourth lowest among the 15 communities com-munities in Davis County. The report, presented by City Manager Tom Hardy, divided the city into three areas for the purpose of determining both the property taxes and franchise fees. THE "LOWER" area extends from 500 West to Orchard Drive; the "middle" area is from Orchard Drive to Davis Blvd.; and the "upper" "up-per" area is from Davis Blvd. to the east city limits. He explained that the city should be divided because of the difference differ-ence in property values, which determine de-termine the amount of property taxes paid; and the amount of electrical elec-trical power and natural gas which are the prime utilities for determining determin-ing the franchise tax. "AS YOU go east from downtown down-town Bountiful the homes increase in valuation and because of larger homes and larger families, the franchise fran-chise tax increases due to the increased in-creased amount of utility service used," Mr. Hardy explained. He said he used utility payments as a source of information as well as property valuations to come up with the following estimates: IN THE "lower" area, city property prop-erty taxes amount to $66 per year and franchise taxes total about $55 per average household. This is increased in-creased to $83 for property taxes and $76.80 per year franchise taxes for the "middle" area; and up to $132 for property taxes and $98.40 per year franchise taxes for the "upper" area. Mr. Hardy emphasized that these figures are for Bountiful's portion of annual taxes only based on 9.13 mills city property tax and a 6 percent franchise tax. THE HOME owner's total tax bill would be considerably higher for property tax because the total amount collected includes 44 mills for the Davis School District; 15.5 mills for Davis County; 4.0 mills for the South Davis Sewer Improvement Im-provement District; and one mill each for Weber Basin Water Conservancy Con-servancy District and Bountiful Water Subconservancy District. The telephone franchise tax amounts to only about $1 per month for all areas of the city. The franchise tax on electricity ranges from $1 .20 to $2.40 per month; and the natural gas (Mountain Fuel) Continued on page two Continued from page one franchise tax ranges from $2.40 to $4.80 per month, the report noted. COMPARED to other large cities in the state, Bountiful is the third lowest -- with only Murray and West Valley having lower property taxes. Salt Lake City, for example, has twice the property tax as Bountiful, Bounti-ful, 9.13 mills compared to 18.79 mills. Ogden is the highest for property taxes with 20 mills. MURRAY IS the lowest with 7.79 mills and has no franchise tax. All other cities have from four to six percent franchise taxes with the most being six percent. Compared to Davis County com-munities, com-munities, only Sunset, Woods Cross and West Bountiful have lower property taxes for equal value of property. Syracuse is the lowest with 6.0 mills; Woods Cross has 7.75 mills; and West Bountiful has 8.82 mills. None has a franchise franch-ise tax. LAYTON HAS the highest property prop-erty tax, 16.51 mills and a four percent per-cent franchise tax. Farmington also has a four percent franchise tax; Centerville, Clearfield and Clinton have three percent franchise franch-ise taxes; and the other cities voted not to impose a franchise tax. In 1982, Bountiful had a mill levy of 10.37 mills. It remained the same in 1983. In 1984 -- following the spring floods of '83 the city imposed im-posed a temporary two-mill emergency flood levy. "BUT THE flood levy of two mills was dropped in 1984 - in addition addi-tion to another mill decrease -- and the 9.13 mill levy for 1985-86 is 1 .24 mills less than in 1982,". said Mayor Dean S. Stahle. |